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Bearsuit
Biography Bearsuit are a long lived and successful 6 piece Indie band with a canon of musical styles which apparently encompasses everything "from cinematic waltzes to catchy electro disco and hard punk screaming riot grrl noise. A mix of Belle and Sebastian, Huggy Bear, and Sonic Youth with electronic twists and turns, and screamy art punk" according to their website. They performed their first gig in 2001 and band have recorded four Radio One sessions for John Peel, had three Festive Fifty top five hits in four years. Hey Charlie, Hey Chuck reached number four in 2001,'' Itsuko Got Married reached number five in 2003 and ''Chargr reached the number two in 2004. Their first album Cat Spectacular! was released in May 2004 in UK/Europe and March 2005 in America. The independent record label Cherryade was named after the Bearsuit track of the same name from the album. They played Emmaboda festival in Sweden in 2004 alongside fellow Norwich band Kaito and and played dates in Amsterdam with Lo-fi Norfolk stalwarts Magoo. In October 2005 they released a compilation album, Team Ping Pong, a collection of songs previously only released on 7" singles. Their second album, oh:io, was released by Fantastic Plastic in September 07. Various members of Bearsuit are also in other bands including Cruiser Chimps, The Aprons, Keytarded and Hyper Kinako (now defunct). PR “Colourful, wacky… pop hotchpotch…Imagine Do Me Bad Things having a good fight with Belle and Sebastian at a fairground…on ‘shrooms…in the dark. Yes, really.” NME “Louder than an explosion in a fireworks factory, …often within the space of a single number, accordion, flute, cornet, violin, theremin and a number of percussion instruments are banged, blown, squeezed and thrummed. It’s an uproariously joyful noise.” Artrocker "Frantic, retro space age, riotously cute disco-punk with the odd throwback to early B&S dropped in, all casual like, lollipop-innocent and coy glances like they hope you won't notice." Everett True, Loose Lips Sink Ships “Peculiar indeed but abnormally captivating all the same” The Fly "In an era when almost everything is quite like something else, Bearsuit are not quite like anything." John Peel "Cinematic doodlings, screamy art punk, and many twists and turns, condensed into less than half an hour of fine, left field pop." The Independent Personnel Jan Robertson - flute, guitar, bass, keyboard, samples, vocals Iain Ross - vocals, guitar and keyboard Lisa Horton - vocals, keytar, keyboards, accordion and theremin Charlene Katuwawala - bass, keyboard, vocals Joe Naylor - drums, percussion, vocals Previous members Matt Moss — bass (until 2004) - Also a member of Lethargic Pigeon and The Rebeccas. Cerian Hutchings - keyboards, violin, cornet, percussion and sings (until 2008) Richard Squires - bass guitar, guitar and vocals (2004-2008) Matt Hutchings - drums and percussion (until 2008) Discography Albums Cat Spectacular! (Fortuna Pop!, Microindie 2004) Team Ping Pong (Fantastic Plastic, 2005) oh:io (Fantastic Plastic, 2007) Singles Hey Charlie Hey Chuck (Sickroom GC, 2001) Drinkink (Sickroom GC, 2002) Stop What You're Doing What You're Doing Is Wrong (Sickroom GC, 2002) Itsuko Got Married (Bearsuit recordings, 2003) The Bearsuit Jesus Will Spear You Through The Heart EP (Fortuna Pop!, 2003) Chargr! (Fortuna POP!, 2004) Steven Fucking Spielberg (Fantastic Plastic, 2006) More Soul Than Wigan Casino (Picture disk - Fantastic Plastic, 2007) #24 UK Indie Foxy Boxer (Fantastic Plastic, 2007) #13 UK Indie Pushover (Fantastic Plastic, 2008) Compilations The Gazumper - (Sickroom GC, 2001) Snowshoe - Should you be singing Christmas songs? (Happy Capitalist, 2001) Come Around - GoJonnyGoGoGoGo (2001) Drinkink - Blip Anomaly (Sickroom GC, 2001) Poor Prince Neal - GoJonnyGoGoGoGo2 (2002) Little Donkey - A Christmas Gift from Fortuna Pop! (Fortuna POP!, 2002) On Your Special Day - I'm With Cupid (WIAIWYA records, 2004) Rodent Disc - GoJonnyGoGoGoGo Favourites #1 (2005) Rodent Disco - Que Viva le Pop! (Elefant Records/Fortuna POP!, 2006) Category:Band Category:2000s